Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Across this western land villages will be opening up their streets to the games and stalls of their annual summer fair or fete. At their best these are brilliant low key affairs, free of the social circles that separate people by income or profession or age.

All the pictures in this piece are either by me or by my wife Lunar Hine. Please attribute any you want to use elsewhere to her blog and to this blog as well. Thanks!

Belstone Fair is a case in point. The communities of Belstone, Sticklepath, South Zeal and South Tawton lie of the north eastern edge of Dartmoor are something any village would be proud of. South Zeal hosts the amazingly folky Dartmoor Folk Festival, with more beards than you can shake a stick at, and two large pubs so filled with musicians that the bar is often unobtainable, and your orders inaudible! I will say more about this event after I have been this year. Sticklepath hosts the amazing spectacle of the Sticklepath Fire Show, with up to 3000 spectators, all created by the collective good will of the local people. These communities are not like the League of Gentlemen (local communities for local people...), if you are willing to put the hours in, and to be slightly respectful of the work and experience of others, there is a place for you.

So in my usual meandering style we come back to Belstone Fair, where everything is so refreshingly human scale and about participation and enjoyment, and in such a beautiful setting. Their is very little of (what I see as) that home counties taint of the over manicured and sanitized neatness at Belstone. The wild still holds hands with the cultivated, the walls still have the odd weed in, the farms their piles of rusting iron. Ponies wander the streets, and their leavings decorate the lanes.

We arrived too late for the Maypole Dancing, but their was a few girls in white dresses around. The pole was of that school playground variety, and the CD player had replaced the band (the Silver Band that had been sought had not arrived).

There was a decorated bike competition for the children...

...the cup being won by the flying chef! (personally I thought the witch deserved it even more, but that's my folkloric soul interfering with my senses.)

Announcements where made by microphone...

...that was rigged up through some home speakers on top of a car that had to be turned on to work!

There was Wack the Rat (not a real rat - a ball of rags)...

..Smashing Pottery (30p for 6 blocks I think). This man had a near constant flow of children at his stall. It was brilliant to see how relaxed everyone was about children smashing things!

.. a brick-a-brack stall (the man here did his very best to sell the nigh un-sellable! I almost succumbed and bought 5 very small paddles - "you might find yourself up a creak and need a way to get out")...

..Nine Pins, or Skittles (not sure what it is called, you see it all over this bit of Devon - a well loved local game. Note re-setter protecting his valuables) The winner of the whole day one a box of chocolates...

...and then, best of all, the games. I missed most of the games, and most of what I did see I didn't photograph. There was three-legged races, normal races, welly wanging (chuck a welly as far as you can) etc. To end it all eggs where sold for £1 and couples where told to stand opposite each other in rows. Two old women, one each end of the two rows conducted this with an absolute discipline (well most people obeyed them any way!). The aim was to through the uncooked egg to your partner, who would through it back. The lines would then get further apart. The throwing took place one at a time down the line. If you did not catch the egg you where out. If you broke it you where out (and covered in raw egg). If your friend decided to brake the egg over your head you where also covered in egg... The following pictures are from this event.

Practice...

...Lining up...

...Disorder...

...Order...

...Good catches...

...Entertaining catches (note raw egg)...

...And a badly shot video.

It was a really fun afternoon - thanks Belstone! It is well worth spending a lazy Sunday afternoon on your local village green this summer.]

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